Michael DeMocker/The Times-PicayuneTulane senior guard Kris Richard's efforts helped Tulane make a school record 15 3-pointers this season, breaking the record of 13 set last season. He is ninth in school history in 3-pointers (101), and is tied with Kim Lewis for the eighth-most-attempted (315).

When the Tulane men’s basketball team wins, the victors get to ring the historic bell outside Fogelman Arena. But the Green Wave’s best outside shooter hasn’t had much luck with the apparatus.

“When I ring it, it never rings, so I just don’t do it,” senior guard Kris Richard said. “I don’t do it no more; I just let the other guys do it. It’s kind of frustrating, so I just don’t touch it anymore.”

The irony is cutting: Richard has delivered many wins for Tulane with his outside touch, but he’s the anti-Midas when it comes to the school’s bell. But Coach Ed Conroy couldn’t care less about that sound as long as Richard is ringing in points from the perimeter.

“His work ethic on his own fundamentals (is key), and because Kris is such a threat if he can work really hard on spacing the floor and cutting for his teammates, he’ll open things up for other guys without even touching the ball,” Conroy said.

Richard is ninth in school history in 3-pointers (101), and is tied with Kim Lewis for the eighth-most-attempted (315). Richard can be streaky from the outside.

But when he has his shooting touch, it makes everyone’s job easier. A game after going 0-for-2 from beyond the arc and his team going 0-for-9, Richard hit on four of nine Tuesday and scored 16 points. His efforts helped Tulane make a school record 15 3-pointers, breaking the record of 13 set last season.

Richard has a standard answer for the quick Saturday-to-Tuesday turnaround: practice. Conroy will set a number of made shots his shooters must hit before practice is over. That benchmark has been high lately.

“Sometimes it will be at least 75 3’s,” Richard said. “We’ve got a two-minute drill that we do at practice, and we get at least 10 times a player, just that we have to make. My arms are sore.”

In the past few days, Richard and his teammates have gone overboard. Richard said he has taken “a couple thousand” shots, and “I always come back after practice and shoot, too, so that’s an extra 1,000 on top of that, so we’ve gone up a lot lately. It’s paying off though.”

Conroy is hoping his team improves its free-throw shooting. The squad made just over half Tuesday.

But after watching Richard make the extra effort after practices and seeing Kendall Timmons take 400 free throws in a practice, Conroy thinks that number will increase.

“That tells me these guys really want it, and they want to be coached and they want to get better, but as I’ve said all year, nothing is going to come easy for this team,” Conroy said. “We just are resigned to that fact. It won’t come easy, but as long as they have that kind of want-to, we’ll make progress.”

Tulane (7-3) will see how far it has progressed today when it travels to Southern (1-9) for a 2 p.m. game in the Mini Dome. The Green Wave’s focus will be self-improvement, Conroy said.

“Now with the short turnaround, it can’t be much about them,” he said. “It’s got to be the things we need to do to improve tonight. But (Tuesday) and Monday, we came in and did the second practice last night and just running through all our stuff with all the different lineups we have now, it’s a real challenge.”